Norplant Birth Control Available in July : Contraception: Planned Parenthood says the device, which prevents pregnancy for five years, ‘will save the state a lot of money’ in care for children on welfare.

Surgical implants of a new birth control device will be available at Planned Parenthood centers in Orange and San Bernardino counties starting in July.

The fee for counseling and the insertion of the device, known as Norplant, will be from $430 to $530, said Margie Fites Seigle, executive director of the Planned Parenthood chapter for the two counties.

Officials said they had been anxiously anticipating federal approval of Norplant, which has been used by half a million women worldwide since 1970. The approval came in December.

“We have been waiting not so patiently for this to come about,” said Beverly Sansone, the chapter’s medical director. “But we understand. . . . We wanted a lot of research in this so people will understand this is a good thing to use.”

Norplant consists of six capsules implanted beneath the skin of a woman’s upper arm through a small incision. The plastic capsules, each about the size of a match stick, release synthetic hormones gradually to prevent pregnancies for five years. The hormones block ovulation and passage of sperm through the cervix.

Users of Norplant can experience side effects similar to those of birth control pills. Norplant is more than 99% effective in preventing conception.

Gov. Pete Wilson said in May that he wants to make Norplant available to teen-agers and to drug abusers of childbearing age. The device would curb unwanted births and help reduce state spending to support children who were born to teen-agers, said Franz Wisner, a spokesman for the governor’s office.

“Where there are unwanted children, you basically have the state acting as parents,” he said.

In California, about $225 million is spent annually to provide welfare and food stamps to teen-age mothers, said Kassy Perry, assistant secretary of public affairs for the state Department of Health Services.

More than 50% of welfare recipients had their first child while they were teen-agers, she said.

Planned Parenthood officials applauded Wilson’s intentions.

“I think it’s very longsighted of him to try to put it into effect,” Sansone said. Norplant “will save the state a lot of money.”

Services to implant the contraceptive will be available sometime between July 1 and July 15 at Planned Parenthood centers in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Mission Viejo, La Habra and Upland, Seigle said.

Doctors at the six centers are now being trained to insert Norplant into volunteers. The contraceptive already has been implanted in five volunteers and will be inserted in five more this afternoon, officials said.